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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Moloney Vs. The Irish News: The Final Word

We have been the vehicle for a debate between Ed Moloney, former director of Boston College’s Belfast Project, andIrish News Editor Noel Doran. At issue is the
role, or lack of such, played by the Belfast-based newspaper in the U.S.
Attorney Office’s issuance of subpoenas demanding access to confidential interviews
held at Boston College. In posts within Hell’s Kitchen, Moloney and Doran
offered differing accounts of Irish News staffers’ actions during and after
their information gathering at the County Dublin home of former Provisional IRA
senior operative Dolours Price. The exchange between Moloney and Doran was
spurred by commentsMoloney made during a Q&A we published October 8, which focused on Boston College’s widely praised oral-history
project. The project has compiled eyewitness accounts of ‘The Troubles’ in
Northern Ireland from combatants on both sides of the divide, in return for
assurances that the contents would not be revealed until an interviewee’s
passing. In portions of our interview, Moloney attempted to provide background
to authorities’ pursuit of two oral histories gathered by Boston College,
including that of Price. Boston College is currently fighting to quash
subpoenas from the U.S. Attorney’s Office demanding access to these oral
histories. Speculation in news accounts about the subpoenas, whose supporting
materials are sealed, suggests these federal officials are acting either on
behalf of British counterparts or the Police Service of Northern
Ireland. We publish here Doran’s reply, the final word we will post on the
subject.

To the Editor:

Noel Doran

Ed Moloney has taken a unique journalistic
stance by making sweeping allegations but completely failing to put questions
to those who could reasonably be expected to help him reach rational
conclusions.

Moloney, in his reply, does not challenge my
central assertion in any way. He could not in all conscience do so, as he is
well aware that he had not been in contact with me for more than a decade
before providing a ludicrously flawed account of two straightforward telephone
calls with Marion Price in which I was involved in 2010.

In my response of October 20, I went on to
say that perhaps the single most remarkable aspect of Moloney's intervention
was the following claim about our discussions with Marion Price's sister, Dolours.
“Whether the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) have ever tried to
obtain the Irish News tape is a mystery, which no one seems able to solve.”

As I have pointed out, Moloney himself could
have solved this “mystery” through one simple telephone call. We would have
been happy to tell him that PSNI [Police Service of Northern Ireland] detectives
did attempt to obtain the Irish News tape but were informed that we were no
longer in possession of any such material.

Moloney's November 10 statement consistently
fails to explain why he neglected to approach the Irish News before providing
what purported to be a detailed account of how we came to publish reports that
were plainly in the public interest.

He instead concentrates on a hair-splitting
analysis about whether our coverage of February 18, 2010, was an “interview,”
although it contained no quotations, or--as I have suggested--a factual report
on important new developments.

Moloney goes on to construct a feeble
conspiracy theory based on nothing more than his observation that two news
reporters whose offices are in neighboring buildings in central Belfast know
each other.

For the record--as I would confirm if Moloney
ever gets round to asking me--the Irish News at no time provided tapes to Sunday Life and we played no part in the subpoenas which were served on Boston
College.

As editor of The Irish News, my interest is
in our coverage of the significant decision by Dolours Price to speak with the
Commission for the Disappeared, which I fully stand over.

If Moloney wishes to establish how Sunday
Life pursued its own stories, he should obviously speak to that newspaper. On
behalf of The Irish News, I can say with certainty that he failed to put even
the most elementary queries to us before offering his unsustainable judgments
on our performance.